When you go out and actually buy beer, what is the first label you go for, basically it can be locally brewed or big scale commercially brewed. I am just trying to get a sense of what we like to drink. Of course other than what we brew ourselves

These two are my old favorites, I like many different labels but for some reason I keep going back to these two. Others that are equally good are "Leinie's Red" (Leinenkugels) up in the northern midwest, Smokey mountain Brewery's "Helles" in Gatlinburg Tenn., Pilsner Urquell, etc ...

I like so many beers, but I go out and drink Guinness. At home it depends on the season, but I always go through a phase that includes Beck's, Grolsch, and Heineken, and a phase that includes Waterloo Dark, Hobgoblin and Upper Canada Dark. My new found favourites include Dragon Stout (Jamaica) and Imperial Stout from Wellington County.

Bit limited here in Oz there used to be a great import bottle shop at the Morrison Hotel, Best variety of english, american, belgian etc. I used to spend more time choosing than buying, Well, they got bought out by some major chain as have ALL the bottle shops and now variety is dead.Mediocraty rules. I no longer buy beer at all really and stick to my own. occasionally ill have a Kilkenny, but it now gives me headaches, if i buy a beer itll be Guinness, but im real fussy and its ALWAYS too cold!!! so i let it sit and warm up. but when my bottle shop was a bottle shop my favourite bottled tipple was Timothy Taylors Landlord Pale Ale, Massive hop flavour profile,. once i tasted this multi award winning beer, i changed my brewing technique and now 50% of the bittering hop quota is in flavouring alone. Ive come close to it but...... thers always that something......

If I was to be stranded on the proverbial desert island - one that had beer deliveries, mind you - and I had to pick three commercial beers to drink for the rest of my life, they would be Guinness, London Pride, and Sierra Nevada Pale. I figure I'll also be drinking lots of Mai Tai's with the natives, so I guess I'd survive

In BC the government controls liquor distribution. We get a lot of standard import names like Guiness, Kilkenny, Heiny, Becks, MGD. The local micro brewing was exploding in the 90s, I was just getting my drinking legs during their heyday. Unfortunately, all my old faves have been bought out by the larger breweries, so even the old micro brews aren't micros anymore (now called craft brews). Shaftebury , based in Delta BC, had probably the best micro going, but was bought out. The Hemp, Traditional and Cream Ales were amazing. Sleeman was the buyer, and they moved production of the brand somewhere else, and the beer suffered. But I can thank the original Shaftebury for teaching what really good, quality beer is. (The Cream Ale still rocks). The best, true Micro available is Yukon Brewing from Whitehorse Yukon. Their "Artic Red" is amazing!

I have dabbled in DAB. I get it in 500ml cans out here. Anyway, it's funny how you mentioned it 'cuz I got a lot of flack from my buddies when I brought a few DABs to a party. I wasn't fazed though, I know a good beer when I drink one. I'll leave the MGD and Molson Canadian to my buddies, pass me a DAB.

I, too, was saddened by the lack of variety in beer the couple weeks I was Down Under. In NSW, I pretty much drank Toohey's Old, and ran screaming every time someone tried to give me a VC (or maybe it was VB - Victoria Bitter I think...), whatever that was. I did happen to be in Sydney on ANZAC Day, which of course I had never heard of, but there was much drinking involved so it gets my approval (and everyone was playing a freaky gambling game with a wooden paddle and 2 coins that I never quite figured out). I found a nice brewpub in Sydney called the Lord Nelson that I spent some time in.

Up in Cairns, Queensland, the regional brew I stuck with was Carlton's Mid-Strength - uneventful and overcarbonated, but it kind of grew on me and now I have a friend bring it back for me when she comes to visit. There were a couple of local micros there, too, of varying quality.

My favorits are arrogant !@#$ ald, hogs heaven barley wine, and old rasputin imperial stout , but on a regular basis i drink anything made by siearra nevada and sometimes st. arnolds(a houston micr-brewery)
later jay

see you at my house for starters, then onto the local micro's to sample their brews. We'll order ahead so the beer aint ffffffffreezing when we drink it. Some of it aint too bad once the flavour gets through the slush!!!Is beer supposed to give you "ice cream" headache??????

I used to drink nothing but "Godsons Black Horse" years ago when at college. When i went on line i found the head brewer of this beer via CAMRA in Britain, hes now a major player in the "Hopback Brewery". Anyway i emailed him for the recipe and to my suprise, he gave it to me, theres some jiggling necessary to make it work, but if anyone is interested, here it is, youll ned to move a decimal point on the hops and it requires some other fermentable to make the 1048 SG. As far as i am aware the British brewers use "invert cane sugar" or "Golden Syrup". I may be wrong- Mesa???I adjusted by adding the loss of extract by using more pale in the mash, But see what you think, i got mine to ferment down to 1014 and it makes a SENSATIONAL porter!!!